Gyrokinetic Electron and Fully Kinetic Ion Particle Simulation of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

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This research continues investigation of 2-D and 3-D current sheet instabilities with a finite guide field, as in reality, and further extends and validates a gyrokinetic electon and fully kinetic ion model for the magnetic reconnection process. Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in laboratory as well space plasmas, attributed to be the underlying physical mechanism for major or minor disruptions of tokamak plasmas. The following specific science questions will be answered: (1) What are the linear eigenmode structure and spectral properties of instabilities generated in current sheet with various guide fields. (2) What are the properties of nonlinear instabilities and their roles in the anomalous resistivity in current sheet. How is the reconnection triggered locally in the presence of the guide field. (3) How does the reconnection evolve, and what is the reconnection rate in a large system, 2-D for now, that allows the presence of and interaction between multiple magnetic islands? Can the basic solutions of the Riemann problem, for structure of quasi-steady reconnection, be reached in system with various sizes and under various boundary conditions.The innovative and advanced simulation tools developed for this research will have a much broader application to simulations of various nonlinear waves and wave-particle interaction in laboratory plasmas and physics of solar flares and transport in the magnetosphere. Since magnetic reconnection is one of the fundamental processes in magnetically confined plasmas, this research will certainly have an impact on research of fusion interest, where kinetic analyses of transport processes due to electromagnetic fluctuations in low-collisionality conditions is one of the challenging problems.This proposal was submitted to the NSF-DoE Partnership in Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation 08-589. This award is being funded jointly by the Division of Physics of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and by Atmospheric Sciences Division of the Geosciences Directorate